It’s cyclone season in Aussie land

I’d love to go outside and take a picture of the wall we built this week on the Northern side of the RUC, but it’s a little breezy at the moment. We’re expecting a cyclone to hit soon – it hasn’t been named yet because it’s still classified as a tropical low, but I have it on good authority (i.e. I’m guessing) it will be called Dylan.

In case you’re wondering how cyclones or hurricanes are named I gleaned a little information from the Bureau of Meteorology at 4am. What’s that you say? Me up at 4am worried about a bit of wind? You betcha!

Names of cyclones that have already significantly affected the Australian region cannot be used again

If two or more cyclones are occurring simultaneously, similar sounding names (eg June & Jane) are avoided to minimise confusion

Names should not be capable of being construed to subject the Bureau to criticism or ridicule (eg naming a sequence of cyclones after politicians)

Lists of names are coordinated with neighbouring meteorological services to avoid duplication

Number 4 gave me a bit of a giggle.

I looked through the list of names for 2013-14 and guess what? Dianne is on the list.

Apparently a lot of people request their names be added to the list, but it can take up to fifty years for your name to be allocated to a cyclone. I feel so insulted special. I just hope when Dianne is chosen she turns out to be a stiff breeze and not a catastrophic nightmare.

I took a picture from the writer’s nook yesterday when the sun decided to make a brief appearance to let us know it still existed above the wind and rain.

Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me that Dylan behaves and doesn’t cause us too much angst.

Chances are I may be offline for a few days so don’t think I’m being a complete snob not stopping by your blogs to say hello 😉

Wow, great pic. Yes I hope you’re not going to get a bad name like Katrina or Ike so that people gasp when they speak of you. Here on the Jersey coast the wind whines around the building constantly – I love it and can’t believe other have installed shutters against the sound 😦

That’s wonderful, Roy. I’m not a great fan of cyclonic wind, but I do enjoy a stiff breeze. And you’re so right about the naming – imagine people saying things like ‘Dianne destroyed half the north coast!’ – yikes! 😉

I laughed at #4 too – can picture Hurricane Rob Ford – Toronto’s crack-smoking, drunken dipstick of a mayor who is a true blowhard! Would definitely bring criticism and ridicule to the bureau. Stay safe!

Pretty sad when a mayor in Canada is infamous down below. That said, we’re extremely fortunate in Calgary to have Mayor Nenshi. Outspoken, but a true leader. When we flooded badly last June, this was one of my favourite quotes.

“I can’t believe I actually have to say this, but I’m going to say it. The river is closed. You cannot boat on the river. I have a large number of nouns that I can use to describe the people I saw in a canoe on the Bow river today. I am not allowed to use any of them. I can tell you, however, that I have been told that despite the state of local emergency, I’m not allowed to invoke the Darwin law.

If you are on the river we have to rescue you. If we have to rescue you we’re taking away valuable resource from others. Every time we have to pull a rescue boat onto the river, it means there is not a rescue boat in a community that is flooded. It is selfish and it is ridiculous for you to be on the river. So, do not do it. Stay off the river no matter what kind of thrills you’re interested in coming for and I won’t use any of the nouns that I really want to use.”

It would be lovely to live somewhere with perfect all-year-round weather conditions, but, alas, I don’t believe there is such a place on earth. We have perfect weather here for 90% of the year, but that 10% of shite weather really makes up for it! 😉

I hope everything turns out okay for you, especially since you’ve put all that hard work into the RUC. We’re surrounded by icy cold, snow, and grayness in my area of the world, much colder than Ohio usually is in the winter. Hopefully Cyclone Dianne and Blizzard Carrie won’t show their faces anytime soon. 😉

Weather conditions are pretty crazy at the moment – far south of us they are experiencing a heat-wave and bush fires. I’ve been through a bush fire and, frankly, I’d rather face a cyclone any day (and that’s saying something because I hate cyclones) 😉

That heat in the southern states is atrocious! I was down south for Christmas and it was bad enough then, but it seems to have gotten worse. Stay cool and safe and I hope you’ve got the air-con cranked up! 😀

How funny that people want their names added to the list, with all the possible destruction that may ensue! Well, I hope this one sweeps by calmly and ends with another beautiful rainbow (I don’t think I’ve ever seen an entire rainbow like that). Here in the NYC area it’s particularly cold and snow is still on the ground so it’s warm soups, cuddles, and good books to get us through the evenings 🙂

What a lovely rainbow, Dianne! Wasn’t Dylan’s song called ‘Hurricane’? No matter, I’m sure the grass in your field must be really ‘Blowin’ in the wind’. Stay safe, dear friend. I’ll be thinking of you. xx

That’s great. 😀 Australia Day is sort of unofficially celebrated in and around Vancouver as well, there being so many of your countrymen hanging their hats here (especially Whistler, the ski resort town).

Wow – hope the worst passes you by! Having lived in the hurricane-prone south here in the US I can understand your fear. I’m living in Arizona now where we’re having warmer-than-normal winter. Our daily highs are in the low to mid 70s(F) and we’ve had only a couple of light freezes overnight so far. I hate to think what the summer is going to be like if it’s already this warm; it’s not unusual for us to have a couple of months in a row of over 100 degree highs, and days over 110.

It may hit slightly south of us (they’ve mentioned that just in passing and I ‘m holding dearly to that thought!) But it has been incredibly windy and rainy here for a few days – the cyclonic winds haven’t hit yet (and they’re very scary as you would know).

Arizona sounds wonderful in winter, but when the temp hits 100 I’d be lizard-lounging in front of the air-conditioner 😀

Oh dear, the only issue with living up North, I envy your view and writers nook, I loved the pic of the rainbow. Hopefully if The big D comes, he will float on by without too much disturbance 🙂 if not buckle up girl, batten down those hatches charge your mobile..if it can work during and stay safe! Thoughts are with you and the fam. xxx

Oh my! One forgets that one’s own freak weather may have to share the spotlight. Keep plenty of fresh water and hang in there for the duration. I have friends visiting Australia just now (Hobart), they’ve been commenting on the heat. This this may give them some special down-under memories of their vacation.

The world is so interesting. You are hunkering down for a hurricane, and I am hunkering down for freezing cold weather. All the same, these moments can be inspiring… a good book at the ready, along with appropriate snacks and liquid snacks! Stay safe.

Have a look at my blog this morn and you will see what kind of day we’re having… hope the tropical storm does not become a cyclone… how can they choose a name like Dianne for a tropical storm… you don’t get all bitter and twisted or angry and blowy do you ??

I love that photo with the rainbow! I hope your weather stays good and not too stormy. Here in Florida, we’ve had a long cold spell, but after this current cold front coming through, we’ll be warming up again.

Well, Dianne, the tropical storm, it looks like things are coming up pots of gold right in your sugar canes. I don’t think I’d be sitting inside waiting for them to come closer, but out there chasing the end of the rainbow. 🙂 Our biggest wish right now is for rain. We are officially having a drought. Groves of orange trees all around us are dying. It’s an act of Congress, literally to get water here. There are salmon and smelt in other parts of the state that die by the tens of thousands if we water our crops.

We get that too. Remember the dust bowl in the 1930s? So many people came here, specifically to Visalia. The town flooded in 1937, and Steinbeck came to investigate for his story, Grapes of Wrath. Visalia got a pretty bad rap for how well they were prepared to help people. Our social system back then was not prepared for the onslaught of either rain or immigrant.

I finished editing my book – at least to the best of my ability. Right now I am taking a class on writing children’s books from the Australian Writer’s Centre that Carol recommended.

When living on the east coast years ago, there was Hurricane Bonnie centered in North Carolina. We had gone to vacation there, and had just missed the storm. The newspaper had a front page headline, with an image of a line of cars bumper to bumper on the freeway, trying to get out of town. The headline read: Millions Flee the Wrath of Bonnie! I have looked and looked for the copy of that paper, but I can’t find it! I was starting a new job at the same time and told them that they were safe with me, my mother had weathered all my storms as teenager. I totally get why you would want one named after you! Stay safe and dry and ok over there!!

This is a beautiful photo Dianne. I very much hope Dylan proves to be a damp squib rather than a full-on storm. Here in the UK everywhere is waterlogged. It has rained and rained for weeks and tomorrow we’re forecast more rain and severe gales. Many people in the county of Somerset are flooded and only able to get to the shops, Drs, work etc by boats that have been running for over a month now. If it carries on we’ll need an ark!

The writer’s nook looks magical with that rainbow there. All hurricanes should really be named after politicians. I’m sure we could easily go back in history to find enough names. Good luck with Dylan! We’ve had a few crazy snowstorms but now we’re starting to get too used to it so there aren’t as many cancellations – still hoping for more snow days though!

Well, here we’re at the tail end of what they’re calling the Polar Vortex. Eek. We’ve had a straight week of below zero temperatures, and it’s so cold that some schools cancelled classes because people can get frostbite in a matter of minutes in these frigid conditions.

We have colder than normal temperatures right now, but I really shouldn’t complain. Back in the Midwest where my family still lives, they’ve reached -25F (-31C) for temperatures and wind chills of -70F (-57C).

What a beautiful photo – wow!!! Loving the rainbow AND makes me think, be sure you’re wearing red shoes over the next few days so you can click them and repeat ‘there’s no place like home’ if this ‘Dylan’ gets any ideas. May you be safe and filled with muse! Blessings, H xxx

I think they should have a political season, where all of the cyclones are named after political figures or infamous people in history. That’s just the way my twisted mind works. I hope you are staying safe and the winds are calming down. Thanks for sharing and leaving us with that beautiful rainbow!

Well it is all over again till next time. We had been told on the GC to expect BIG swells as the King tide and cyclone approached. I must admit it was a bit of an anticlimax here. We got up early and camera in hand rushed down to take photos. But it was grey and overcast with only an average swell so no photos… Hope it by passed your corner of Queensland

We got some pretty hairy gales, but Dylan missed us – thank goodness, although we did have some local flooding but it didn’t come as far as the RUC. I believe there may be another on the way, but it my be closer to you than to me. Having said that, these things can be highly unpredictable and go anywhere 😉

Uh, now that I’ve rested my scrolling fingers a bit…(honestly, how do you garner so many comments on your posts, you lucky duck?!)…I can tell you that that is a stunning photo and even more breathtaking, is that you took it from where you WRITE! Sigh.

I know you’re okay, but I hope you stay okay and that Dianne the cyclone, never sees the light of day! :0)

Last cyclone we had was pretty scary but the best thing about it was that the ‘eye’ passed directly over us. I’ve never seen the eye of a cyclone before and the only way I can explain it is that everything went calm and a gold shaft of light appeared from the sky and turned everything (the grass, trees, house) gold – it was like being on another planet 😀

Yikes! I’m assuming you’re safe, since I’m just catching up on this post.

I, too, think #4 is giggle worthy. I mean, come on. Why not name all of the cyclones after politicians!

I always figured cyclones/hurricanes were named after people’s ex spouses/lovers, or something. Kind of like how we writers sneak in evil characters from real life into our stories for payback…in a classy, non-violent way. : )

That is a beautiful picture! The view from your writing nook is very inspirational.

As dumb as it sounds, I had no idea there were rules for naming storms. I’m happy you shared and I appreciate the giggles it gave me. They mostly seem like common sense but 4 is genius. I quite like the idea of them eliminating that rule. 😉

Welcome back to blogland – I’m just catching up on blogs from new year so sorry that’s a belated greeting!!
Weather here in the UK is wet and windy, as it has been since last October, pretty much – it’s quite horrible in some places and there’s been a lot of flooding 😦 Hope Dylan didn’t cause you too much strife?
I love your pic, I so rarely see both ends of a rainbow!

Hello. EJ! Lovely to see you here 😀 I just popped over to your blog to find I wasn’t following you anymore (this has happened to me with a few other bloggers – the WP gremlins hate me) so I pushed that little button again 😉

I saw on the news this morning that the weather in the UK is awful 😦 Dylan managed to behave himself and move south so I was pretty happy about that because at that stage I had a missing wall that needed to be built and sealed (all done now!) 😉

The weather here had been pants for weeks – half of the UK is underwater. Hopefully it’s getting better now. I have my own cosy writers nook finally – I blogged a pic the other day. Whenever I am thinking about my nook I think of yours. Of course, you have a beautiful view, but then you live in tropic land. I was aiming for warmth, since I live in soggy land.

I thought you had been away from blogging because I hadn’t received any email notifications – but alas, WP has done it to me again. I just went over to your blog to find I wasn’t following you anymore! Do’h 😦